Born to race cars, Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is aggressive,
instinctive and, most of all, fearless. His only real competition
is the memory of the brother he idolized—the legendary
Rex Racer, whose death in a race has left behind a legacy
that Speed is driven to fulfill. Speed is loyal to the family
racing business, led by his father, Pops Racer (John Goodman),
the designer of Speed’s thundering Mach 5. When Speed
turns down a lucrative and tempting offer from Royalton Industries,
he not only infuriates the company’s maniacal owner
(Roger Allam) but uncovers a terrible secret—some of
the biggest races are being fixed by a handful of ruthless
moguls who manipulate the top drivers to boost profits. If
Speed won’t drive for Royalton, Royalton will see to
it that the Mach 5 never crosses another finish line. The
only way for Speed to save his family’s business and
the sport he loves is to beat Royalton at his own game. With
the support of his family and his loyal girlfriend, Trixie
(Christina Ricci), Speed teams with his one-time rival—the
mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox)—to win the race that
had taken his brother’s life: the death-defying, cross-country
rally known as The Crucible.

Movie Review:

“The Point”

Speed
Racer is a dazzling homage to the old cartoon series. It has
those campy good old family bonding fun and the retro futuristic
touch up looks stunning. However the blazing fast editing
and choreography of speed is a blurry mess. It also tried
to cramp too much of Speed Racer’s rich history and
characters into one feature length motion picture that it
is choking the enjoyment right out of the window. While other
CGI effects tried to hide their green screen effects from
viewers, Speed Racer made it stand out like a sore thumb.

Disclaimer:
Reviewer had never watched a single episode of Speed Racer
cartoon in his life and wrote this review purely base on the
movie itself.

“The
Rant”

Speed
Racer, an enduring icon from the sixties and the importance
that it plays in today’s pop culture would probably
be that it was one of the first Japanese animation (Anime)
that made it big in the USA. Some celebrities that had their
childhood back in that period, could be found quoted saying
how memorable that cartoon series was. There were plans to
bring this series back as a motion picture event but after
a few failed attempts, the Speed Racer project finally landed
in the hands of The Wachowski brothers, the fame directors
of The Matrix series and most importantly, a fan of the Speed
Racer cartoon series.

Much
love could be seen in how they brought their beloved series
onto the big screen. Everything sixties about Speed Racer
were faithfully preserved and touched up to dazzle today’s
audience. Color was spectacularly vibrant. Various cars and
race tracks, although a little dated in design, were still
stunning to look at.

The
wholesomeness of this flick goes well for the general children
audience and one that parents wouldn’t have too much
explaining to do later. But for those aged slightly older
than children to those who aren’t burden with parental
duties, might find the plots a little too simple and “goody
two shoes” like the Brady Bunch. It’s definitely
different from what been offered nowadays so if uniqueness
is what you are looking for, Speed Racer is packing a lot
of those special traits.

The
other good thing that stood out from this family orientated
film was how this film dealt with the corruption of sports.
The seedy side of sports where out come of the games are decided
off the courts, instead of on the courts was a nice wake up
call to the reality of major modern televise sports. It makes
one wonder how much of the outcome of sport events nowadays
are really in the hands of the participants or already pre
decided by those big corporate sponsors.

Now
onto the speed bumps that keeps one from enjoying the flick.

The
age old “biting too much than it can chew” syndrome
of condensing a TV series into a Movie presents itself as
a problem in this flick. There are the massive subplots involving
various characters in Speed Racer’s life that the filmmakers
tired to cramp in and sparks some importance with them. There
are Speed Racer’s Dad (Pops), Mom, Brother Rex, Girlfriend
Trixie, car mechanic Sparky, younger Brother and his chimp
who are all trying to fight for screen time and had to do
so much of endearing within those limited screen time. And
if that isn’t enough, there is still the mysterious
Racer X and questionable allied Taejo, which could all be
laid out into a trilogy if their stories were to be told correctly.
It felt uneventfully short, forceful and derailing while achieving
little impact.

Then
there are too many characters were introduced and weren’t
given the chance to flesh out. Actor such as Hiroyuki Sanada
(that guy from Ringu and Sunshine) only had one scene to speak
of for his participant in this film as Mr. Musha and spend
the rest looming around, doing nothing much, which felt like
an waste of his talent. Even Korean megastar, Rain’s
Taejo motivation felt mishandled. On one hand, the filmmakers
want to play him as the (Spoiler )bad
guy (Spoiler End) but it seems that they are afraid
of offending the legion of fans and made him (Spoiler)
“cheered for the hero that he just betrayed???”
(Spoiler End). There is far too little time here to
make the constant switch for Rain’s character and not
resolving it.

The
biggest fault for Speed Racer would lie in the race itself.
Maybe it was super impressive back in the sixties but jumping
a car while racing now (no matter how the film tried to hype
it or stylize it) felt lackadaisical. The worst part is that
this tick is being over utilized and even used for the grand
finale. Is there all there is to this one trick wonder?

Then
there is the essence of speed that they tried to capture which
felt like it was a blurry mess that was similar to those who
complained about Transformer. The race difficulties weren’t
clearly defined and the sequences weren’t choreographed
properly, making it hard to feel the excitement of the race.
To make matter worse, it even slice in too much flashback
sequences during the race to derail whatever momentum it had
going. For better racing films, I would recommend flicks like
Jackie Chan’s Thunderbolt and even the Japanese animation
Initial D.

Last
but not least, the problem with the blue (or should I say
green) screen special effects which shouldn’t be after
the likes of Matrix and Sin City. Maybe it’s homage
to how animation was done back then but it was distracting
to see the human characters and their background not blending
together well, especially during the motion sequences.

These
are some of the problems that withheld me from enjoying the
family friendly, Speed Racer. It’s a nice touch to see
how the directors are trying to preserve and pays tribute
to their favorite anime but then again, I can’t help
but feel that Speed Racer is just too dated to go with today’s
crowd. Some hardcore fans might disagree with this take and
my fellow MX colleagues had easier time enjoying it by just
letting what is being shown on screen, flow by and soak in
the retro groovy psychedelic fun.

Movie
Rating:

(Blazingly vibrant homage to the sixties family friendly cartoon
with too much speed bumps on it’s way, making it a tepid
ride)